great start

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday! the other morning at breakfast I was trying to describe to my German roommates (Vera and Sophia) what Halloween was. They were so confused at why we celebrated something when we didn’t really know how the holiday originated. They thought our answer of “it’s just fun,” was not legitimate enough for the whole country to celebrate a holidayJ

It is my third night here in Kampala, and the amount of learning I have done in the past three days is incredible. It was nice coming in on a weekend because it gave me time to settle in, explore a little, before my schedule and work gets a little more demanding. Tomorrow is my first day at Dawn, the day care for special needs children, and I couldn’t be more excited. I am sure God is going to stretch me in everyway possible, and I just pray that I can be of some help to the workers, and especially the children. I will keep you updated on that once I know exactly what I will be doing and such. Keep Dawn Center in your prayers though. A center like this is very unique here because special needs kids are more likely to be neglected by family than helped, or sent somewhere they can receive treatment.

I am still struggling a little bit with some jet lag. I did not sleep at all last night!! I thought since I slept so long on Friday night that I would be ok. Well I was wrong, and jet lag seriously sucks. I laid awake all night, tired, but couldn’t sleep. So I read, and thought, and prayed. It was pretty miserable, well not the praying partJ I made an effort to pray for anyone but myself, so I spent a lot of time praying for people at home. It 11:17 pm here, and I am exhausted. Hopefully I can get a full nights rest, and be done with this!
　
Today was a good day. Heather and I met Florance (the lady that started Dawn) for church. She has taken us under her wing and is so wonderful. We call her Mama Duck because we all just follow her in a little line wherever we go. We went to Calvary Chapel Kampala in Kololo. I was expecting this totally cultural experience, but it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. First of all “African time” is a little different than American time. No one is on time, ever. We get to church and its ALL mzungus (white people). I was thinking ok I cant be here and go to a church with all people who aren’t even Ugandan. But then about 20 minutes after the service started the place filled up with nationals. By the end the nationals outnumbered the mzungus. But it was an American Calvary Chapel so the pastor is a white guy and the service held nothing out of my comfort zone, or anything too different than what it is like at home. I think we will go there again, but I also want to try a more local church to experience that as well.

After church we met up with Sophia and Vera (Germans) and we all went and got pedicures. Its crazy, in town it looks so run down. you see signs for all kinds of shops, salons, restaurants, but because of how they look on the outside you cant imagine them being bigger than 6x6 on the inside, and not nice at all. So we walk into “the vine salon” and its actually fairly nice, I was surprised. Heather (roommate, and also with AIM) and I were kind of freaking about this. We are weary to get them in the clean salons in the states, how could this be sanitary here?? But not to worry, I am alive after experience, and I got to see the guy sanitize the equipment. we each got a pedicure for about 7$ but it took us about 3.5 hours, and believe my I was ready to get out of there.

Then Florance took us all to the cultural center tonight. They have a cultural show every night where they show off all the local dances and music. It was a great show. At the end the MC went through the crowd to see where everyone was from. There were people from the UK, Germany, Holland, Austria, Canada, Panama, Spain, Mali, Denmark… and more. I would say some were there for a visit, but most were there helping in some way. Then the MC thanked us all for coming to Uganda to help them, and that they appreciated it so much. Then he had all the foreigners come down to the stage and line up. There were about 150 of us. He then told all the Ugandans to get out of their seats and to come shake our hands. They did, formed this huge line and individually welcomed and thanked us. It was really cool!

I appreciate all of the prayers and support more than you know. To know you are right where God wants you is the most amazing peace I have ever experienced in my life, and so many people are apart of that because so many people have supported me in one way or another. So thank you again. I am not sure what God has in store for me, but this is only the beginning